Abilities and Skills
Abilities and Skills '''are the measure of how powerful the Hero is. Unlike other Sierra games where the player character maintains the same level of skill throughout the adventure, the Hero in the Quest for Glory series can steadily improve his abilities and skills. In order to complete each game, the Hero may be required to train these skills to ensure his continued survival. The measure of the Hero's abilities and skills is shown on the Character Screen. Each ability or skill is represented by a numerical value in terms of how proficient the Hero is in each ability or skill. Note that if the Hero has zero proficiency in any skill, then he cannot increase that number through normal training no matter how many times he attempts. For example, if the Hero has a 0 skill in Climbing, then no amount of attempting to climb will raise that number. During Character Creation, using the starting Point Pool, all abilities and skills can be adjusted, except for Honor. Abilities and skills can be increased using the Point Pool, but never decreased below their starting point. It is possible to use the starting Point Pool to add one or more skills that the Hero's selected class would not normally allow, but this comes at a point penalty, which varies. See the Hybrid page for more information. Abilities These are five traits of the Hero that are considered physical attributes and are based around the Hero's person. All classes have access to all abilities. The abilities usually support the skills employed as base stats, and are trained alongside them (eg. Strength and Agility support Climbing; Intelligence supports Magic and Pick Lock etc.) They are as follows: *Strength *Intelligence *Agility *Vitality *Luck Skills Unlike abilities, skills are knowledge that is tailored to the Hero's class. Skills may be specific to only one or two classes, although a few are applicable to all. Several skills were available to the Hero in the first game of the series, and more were added as the series progressed. They are as follows: Introduced in Quest for Glory I: *Weapon Use - (All classes, renamed Offense in Quest for Glory V) *Parry - (Fighter) *Dodge - (All classes) *Stealth - (Thief) *Lockpicking - (Thief) *Throwing - (Fighter, Thief) *Climbing - (Thief, also learned by Fighter in Quest for Glory IV) *Magic - (Magic User) Introduced in Quest for Glory II: *Communication - (All classes) Introduced in Quest for Glory III: *Paladin - (Paladin) Introduced in Quest for Glory IV: *Acrobatics - (Thief) Introduced in Quest for Glory V: *Defense - (All classes, replaced Parry and Dodge) *Swimming - (All classes) *Pickpocketing - (Thief) Note: The Paladin has the same skills as the Fighter. Honor Honor is not a typical skill or ability, although it is numerically tracked and falls among the others on the Character Screen. Honor can only be influenced by the Hero's actions, and may not have points assigned to it during Character Creation. Training and Threshold All abilities and skills can be increased through training them. How to train each one is described on each individual page. In general, a stat is increased by doing actions that require it: each time the stat is employed, the system adds a "tick" to a counter; the closer the skill is to the "target" action, the more the "ticks" added to the counter. Conversely, the weaker or the more advanced is a stat, the less it will be trained with a specific target: a Thief with low Climbing will benefit from an "easy" tree, and not at all from a "difficult" wall; conversely a Thief with a high skill will not benefit from the tree, but from the wall. More specifically, a Thief who tries to climb a certain "easy" tree that requires 40 Climbing, will have to train on it. At first the skill will be trained slowly (will gain less "ticks"), however as his skill approaches 40, he will be trained more effectively ("ticks" are increasingly added). If he tried to train on the "difficult" wall that requires 80 at this stage, it will not benefit him. More "ticks" are also added depending on the "base stats" (see below). When the "ticks" reach the existing skill level, the skill randomly advances by 1-3 points, and the "tick" counter is reset. However, when his Climbing skill advances well above 40, the "ticks" are added more slowly while training on the "easy" tree, meaning that training on that particular tree will not benefit him any more; the skill must be trained now with "harder" targets, such as said wall. Base stats There are also "base stats", the '''Abilities on which a Skill is based on; for example, Climbing skill is based on the average of Strength and Agility abilities. This means that when those 2 abilities are high enough, more "ticks" are added, and Climbing is trained faster. Training on a skill also benefits "base" abilities: for example while practicing the Climbing skill, Strength and Agility are also added "ticks" proportionately, and can be increased this way. Threshold The maximum numbers for all abilities and skills are specific to each game, and are as follows: *Quest for Glory I - 100 *Quest for Glory II - 200 *Quest for Glory III - 300 *Quest for Glory IV - 400 *Quest for Glory V - 500 There are exceptions to the maximum amount of 500 in the case of Quest for Glory V. Each of the four classes has one ability and one skill which can be increased to a maximum of 550: *Fighter - Strength and Offense *Wizard - Intelligence and Magic *Thief - Agility and Stealth *Paladin - Vitality and Honor Equipment In Quest for Glory V, equipping certain items can change the Hero's abilities and skills. These changes are in place only while the item is equipped and are not permanent. Items may increase or decrease stats (or both) depending on the item equipped. Category:Game Mechanics